[danso]

> US to stake out airports and study the US’s airport security protocol. I’m not sure the outcome would be much different

Could you point to a real-life example you have in mind, in which either (or both) the judicial process was so non-transparent, or the punishment so severe? I mean, the obvious situation that comes to mind is Gitmo, but I couldn't think of instances of Gitmo detainees who were legal immigrants or on student visas.

There was recently a Chinese intelligence officer who was extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges, but AFAIK, that case will be handled in open trial: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/us/politics/china-spy-esp...

[mikekchar]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Elcom_Ltd. comes to mind. Of course the charges were ultimately dropped, but only on condition that Sklyarov testify against his employer. On the other hand this as a DMCA case, not espionage. The reaction was massively unbalanced. If you had a researcher who was deemed to be revealing state secrets, it seems fairly likely that the state would use whatever powers it had to keep the lid on things.

[danso]

My knowledge about this case comes only from the Wikipedia link you provided, but were the consequences in that case any different than what a U.S. citizen would face? I agree that DMCA cases are problematic to say the least. But I don't think it is at all reasonable to conclude, "If that's the trouble a simple DMCA case gets you, imagine what you face for foreign espionage" -- because we don't really need to imagine the latter. In Sklyarov's case, and in actual espionage cases, we know the details of the charges and judicial proceedings, even if we think the punishment/indictments are out of whack.

We don't seem to really know anything about UAE's case at the present moment. From The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/21/british-academ...

> However, Emirati press claimed Hedges had confessed to the charges against him and the case had been passed to the state security court. There is no independent confirmation of this claim. Hedges was taken to court in Abu Dhabi twice in October, with the case being adjourned both times.

Again, Gitmo notwithstanding, I can't recall a U.S. case being handle in this fashion:

> Tejada said that during the first six weeks he was interrogated without a lawyer or consular access, and held in “inhuman” conditions under which his mental health deteriorated. During this time he was allegedly made to sign a document in Arabic which it has now been disclosed was a confession statement. Hedges does not speak or read Arabic.